HUGH GAVIN

The young Connacht centre is hoping his club form can catch the eye of Andy Farrell

- Words PAT McCARRY >> Pics INPHO

THE BRIGHT, young hope of Galway's Gaelic Footballers is a Salthill-Knocknacarra midfielder called Matthew Thompson.

Plugged into a team earlier this year that reached the 2024 All-Ireland final, Thompson was immediately at home in the playmaker role. In another world, Thompson's midfield partner with 'The Tribesmen' could have easily been Hugh Gavin.

“I’m from Salthill,” Gavin explains, “and I would have also played a small bit of hurling growing up. Before Covid, rugby would have been my number one thing.

“Around 2021, I got a bit bigger and grew out. I was playing a lot of GAA then and our Salthill team was quite good. We won a couple of county titles. I got called into the Galway minors team, the year of my 18th birthday. Connacht were very fair with how they handled my sessions and workload when I was with Galway. There weren't too many fixture clashes as we lost to Roscommon in the first round. We were 13 points up at one stage and ended up bottling it at Tuam Stadium. That was the end of my football.”